Teenager to Be Tried as Adult in School Slaying

A teenager accused of fatally stabbing a 17-year-old summer school classmate--the first slaying on a Burbank school campus--will be tried as an adult, a judge has ruled.

Erik Favela was found unfit to be tried as a juvenile on Monday by Pasadena Juvenile Judge Raymond Morales. Favela appeared Wednesday in Burbank Municipal Court for arraignment, which was postponed until Nov. 10 at his attorney’s request.

Favela was 16 on July 10 when he allegedly killed Burroughs High School senior Adam Smith, who was attending summer classes with him at Burbank High school. Witnesses said Favela was angry that Smith made insulting remarks about Favela’s girlfriend, who had also dated Smith.

During the fitness hearing, defense attorney Barry O. Bernstein argued unsuccessfully that Favela could not be tried as an adult until the Juvenile Court determined his sanity at the time of the alleged offense.

“I’ve got a 17-year-old client with a head injury that causes an uncontrollable rage response,” Bernstein said. “That’s sufficient enough to raise the issue [that Favela was] not guilty by reason of insanity at the time of commission of the alleged offense.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Laura Foland-Priver contended that Favela was spoiling for a fight with Smith.

“The defendant was upset with the victim because he wouldn’t fight,” Foland-Priver said. The victim “did what every parent tells their child to do [in a fight], to walk away. And for that he got stabbed.”

Favela allegedly followed Smith down a path leading to a faculty parking lot where he stabbed Smith in the chest and abdomen and fled. He was arrested at his home in Burbank.

In the wake of the killing, many Burbank parents expressed outrage that Favela, who was enrolled in a special school for students with disciplinary problems, had been allowed to take summer school classes on a mainstream campus.

Favela originally was a student at Burroughs High, where he violated school rules and was ordered to complete the 1997-98 academic year at Brighton Community School, a county-operated facility for students with disciplinary problems, school officials said.

Although Favela was eligible to return to Burroughs in September, school officials recommended he transfer to Monterey Continuation School, a district-operated campus. But because the Monterey School does not operate year-round, he was allowed to enroll at Burbank High for summer classes.